Gibraltar dumping all of its raw sewage into Mediterranean

Raw sewage from nearly 40,000 people and businesses is being pumped straight into the sea because the British overseas territory of Gibraltar does not have, and has never had, a wastewater treatment plant.

For decades, untreated sewage has poured into the Mediterranean from the southern tip of the peninsula at Europa Point, where the government of Gibraltar says there are “high levels of natural dispersion”.

The area is supposed to be protected for wildlife but often there are “wet wipes and plastic pollution entangled in algae and all over the rocks”, said Lewis Stagnetto, of the Nautilus Project, a local environmental charity.

Raw sewage pollution can trigger toxic algal blooms that strip oxygen from the water, choking aquatic life. It exposes fish and mammals to a cocktail of chemicals and plastics that can disrupt reproduction and damage health, and puts people at risk by spreading pathogens and antibiotic-resistant genes.

Unlike Britain, Gibraltar’s sewerage system uses seawater, and drinking water comes from desalination. The Gibraltar government says the salinity “historically created challenges that are not present in other wastewater treatment plants around the world”. It also claims that wet wipes “that appear occasionally on our beaches have … come from outlets in nearby Spain”.

In 2017, the European court of justice ruled that the UK was in breach of wastewater law by failing to treat Gibraltar’s sewage, but the European Commission lost any power to take action after Brexit.

Attempts to fix the problem have repeatedly collapsed. In 2018, Gibraltar’s government awarded a contract to a joint venture between NWG Commercial Services (Northumbrian Water) and Modern Water to design, build and operate a treatment plant, only for the deal to fall apart after a Modern Water subsidiary went into liquidation.

“This had a significant impact on the delivery of this vital project,” a Gibraltar government spokesperson said. Preliminary talks with the European Investment Bank also “fell through as a direct result of the UK leaving the European Union”, they added.

In June 2025, the Gibraltar government awarded a 25-year contract to Eco Waters to build a wastewater treatment plant at Europa Point. Advanced works have begun on the design and geotechnical aspects of the plant and a planning application was submitted in March 2026.

Northumbrian Water, which partnered with the government from 2003 until 2024 through a joint venture called AquaGib, was keen to distance itself from the sewage failures. It said operations “centred on the provision of drinking water” and that it was not responsible for day-to-day operations.